The Voters Speak (at least a few of them)

Turn-out for Tuesday's preliminary election was disappointing, even by Springfield standards: Fewer than 10 percent of voters turned out to cast their votes in an election to narrow down a number of candidates for several City Council and School Committee seats to just two, for the Nov. 3 general election.

But not everyone ended that day disappointed. Among the big winners: Tim Allen, who cleaned up in the race for the Ward 7 seat. Allen walked away 921 votes-or 55 percent of the total-in that traditionally politically engaged neighborhood, leaving second place finisher, School Committee member Mike Rodgers, who got 28 percent of the vote, with a lot of catching up to do.

The highest voter-getter of the day, meanwhile, was Rodger's School Committee colleague Chris Collins, who's running for the Committee's District 3 seat. While Collins' vote percentage was slightly behind Allen's (he got 52 percent of the vote), more voters cast ballots for him than any other candidate: 1,400.

With the field now whittled down, here are the candidates voters will choose from on Election Day: